---
title: It was a long time ago, while the English fleet lay in the roads, on… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: It was a long time ago, while the English fleet lay in the roads, on the second of April, when we showed that we were true, ancient Danes. Who acts: face, English fleet, we. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Holger Danske, with its dependency tree and the prag
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Holger Danske, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It was a long time ago, while the English fleet lay in the roads, on the second of April, when we showed that we were true, ancient Danes.

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**Who acts:** face, English fleet, we · **What happens:** be, lie, show · **To what, where:** long time, roads · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Holger Danske. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (face, English fleet, we), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg27200:50:37
# text = It was a long time ago, while the English fleet lay in the roads, on the second of April, when we showed that we were true, ancient Danes.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	English	English	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	fleet	fleet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	lay	lie	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	roads	road	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	on	on	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	second	second	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	April	April	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	25	advmod	_	_
24	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	showed	show	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
26	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
27	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
31	ancient	ancient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	Danes	Dane	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | face | a long time |  |  |  | ago *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **lie** | past | the English fleet |  |  | the roads on the second of April |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in road=Location |
| 3 | **show** | past | we |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | we |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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